Graphics hardware maker Nvidia is responding to accusations by rival AMD that its new GameWorks toolset interferes with the ability of game developers to optimize their products for AMD graphics hardware. Last week Robert Hallock, AMD's head of technical communications, software and technologies made the allegations in regard to Watch Dogs.

"Gameworks represents a clear and present threat to gamers by deliberately crippling performance on AMD products (40 percent of the market) to widen the margin in favor of NVIDIA products," Hallock told Forbes last week. "Participation in the Gameworks program often precludes the developer from accepting AMD suggestions that would improve performance directly in the game code-the most desirable form of optimization."

Speaking to Forbes, Cem Cebenoyan, Nvidia's director of engineering and developer technology, said that AMD's accusations are "mysterious" and that its toolset does not stop anyone from getting access to code. Further, he says that there's no agreement in place to stop AMD from communicating with developers who use the toolset.

"I've heard that before from AMD and it's a little mysterious to me," he said. "We don't and we never have restricted anyone from getting access as part of our agreements. Not with Watch Dogs and not with any other titles."

"Our agreements focus on interesting things we're going to do together to improve the experience for all PC gamers and of course for Nvidia customers," he continued. "We don't have anything in there restricting anyone from accessing source code or binaries. Developers are free to give builds out to whoever they want. It's their product."

Finally, Cebenoyan made clear that nothing in the GameWorks tools limit AMD performance, and that Nvidia would never stop a company like Ubisoft from making changes that would allow a title to work better with AMD hardware.

"I can tell you that the deals that we do, and the GameWorks agreements, don't have anything to do with restricting anyone's access to builds."

Beyond that, I keep hearing horror stories around ATi, now AMD, cards. That they keep breaking games and what not. It's almost to the point of being unsaid that if you're a PC gamer, you tend to go with Nvidia since you'll have less issues overall.

I've not used and Nvidia card since the original GeForce MX.

My ATI/AMD's have been solid performing workhorses that have never given me any issues

I wonder how much of that 40% marketshare they claim to have is from companies like Dell and HP forcing that brand onto the consumer.

Anyway, the majority of what I've seen in terms of people who use AMD graphics card are either people who had prebuilts, thought they were getting a deal, or have very specific uses for them.

Specific uses such as bitcoin mining, and video rendering. And just about anything that generally revolves around integer computing, Nvidia is better at float, though they only recently started to get into integer computing for their cards.

Beyond that, I keep hearing horror stories around ATi, now AMD, cards. That they keep breaking games and what not. It's almost to the point of being unsaid that if you're a PC gamer, you tend to go with Nvidia since you'll have less issues overall.

╔╦═╣Signature Statement╠═╦╗

If you don't like something I said in a post, don't just hit the dislike, let me know your thoughts! I'm interested in knowing everyone's opinions, even when they don't mesh with my own.

I have built every computer I have owned since I was 9 (20 years ago) and while I did use a few non ATI cards back in the 90's and early 00's (I remember a Voodoo, a Matrox and an early Nvidia card in there) I have not installed anything but ATI in my entire adult life. I have never encountered these legendary driver issues that supposedly plague ATI hardware (I have had to roll back to the previous version a couple of times but that is common with Nvidia as well and I have never had an issue beyond that).

I buy ATI because you generally get better power per dollar over Nvidia and because I have never had anything but great experience with ATI so I have never felt the need to buy an Nvidia card instead (I have nothing against their cards, ATI is just my go to and it has never let me down).

My R9 290 purrs along quite nicely, easily handling everything I throw at it. As a life long PC gamer I definitely don't feel at all held back or burdened by issues related to my choice in graphics cards.

I've exclusively used AMD cards for years, with no issues whatsoever. As a general rule, you get better-performing cards for a significantly lower price going with ATi/AMD over nVidia.

For the past five years or so, the only reason anyone can legitimately choose an nVidia card over an AMD card based on price/performance is if they need PhysX for games or just general compute power on a card. For general, all-around PC gaming, you'll see a much better price-to-performance ratio with the red team.

nVidia consistently has the best Price/Performance on Top-10 performing cards, along with the Lower end of the 'High Performance Spectrum' The only thing that really fluctuates is the mid-high-range where the R9-270 lays and this tends to shift depending on who did the last price drop or who is running a sale. Even then, nVidia generally has a similarly/better performing card within a price point that's similar. So I'm not sure where you get your data from, but I regularly check this chart.

I dunno driver/performance wise ADM has been nothing but a nightmare for me.... Nvidia is everywhere and to many games use PhysX.(tho the funny bit is I tested Batman AC with both and the PhysX screwed up debris or whatever controlled the floating/flying dollars for catwomans last(?) mission, the ADM card did not screw that bit up, Nvidia should focus more on optimization rather than dickering with the damn drivers).

Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Let's renegotiate them.